[Illustration: Fig. 35.--William, Duke of Normandy, accompanied by
Eustatius, Count of Boulogne, and followed by his Knights in
arms.--Military Dress of the Eleventh Century, from Bayeux Tapestry said
to have been worked by Queen Matilda.]
The Italian movement was immediately felt on the other side of the Alps.
In Provence, Septimanie, and Aquitaine, we find, in the eleventh century,
cities which enjoyed considerable freedom. Under the name of communities
and universities, which meant that all citizens were part of the one body,
they jointly interfered in the general affairs of the kingdom to which
they belonged. Their magistrates were treated on a footing of equality
with the feudal nobility, and although the latter at first would only
recognise them as "good men" or notables, the consuls knew how to make a
position for themselves in the hierarchy. If the consulate, which was a
powerful expression of the most prominent system of independence, did no
succeed in suppressing feudalism in Provence as in Italy, it at least so
transformed it, that it deprived it of its most unjust and insupportable
elements. At Toulouse, for instance (where the consuls were by exception
called _capitouls_, that is to say, heads of the chapters or councils of
the city), the lord of the country seemed less a feudal prince in his
capital, than an honorary magistrate of the bourgeoisie. Avignon added to
her consuls two _podestats_ (from the Latin _potestas_, power). At
Marseilles, the University of the high city was ruled by a republic under
the presidency of the Count of Provence, although the lower city was still
under the sovereignty of a viscount. Perigueux, which was divided into two
communities, "the great and the small fraternity," took up arms to resist
the authority of the Counts of Perigord; and Arles under its _podestats_
was governed for some time as a free and imperial town. Amongst the
constitutions which were established by the cities, from the eleventh to
the sixteenth centuries, we find admirable examples of administration and
government, so that one is struck with admiration at the efforts of
intelligence and patriotism, often uselessly lavished on such small
political arenas. The consulate, which nominally at least found its origin
in the ancient grandeur of southern regions, did not spread itself beyond
Lyons. In the centre of France, at Poictiers, Tours, Moulin, &c., the
urban progress only manifested itself in efforts which were feeble and
easily suppressed; but in the north, on the contrary, in the provinces
between the Seine and the Rhine, and even between the Seine and the Loire,
the system of franchise took footing and became recognised. In some
places, the revolution was effected without difficulty, but in others it
gave rise to the most determined struggles. In Normandy, for instance,
under the active and intelligent government of the dukes of the race of
Roll or Rollon, the middle class was rich and even warlike. It had access
to the councils of the duchy; and when it was contemplated to invade
England, the Duke William (Fig. 35) found support from the middle class,
both in money and men. The case was the same in Flanders, where the towns
of Ghent (Fig. 36), of Bruges, of Ypres, after being enfranchised but a
short time developed with great rapidity. But in the other counties of
western France, the greater part of the towns were still much oppressed by
the counts and bishops. If some obtained certain franchises, these
privileges were their ultimate ruin, owing to the ill faith of their
nobles. A town between the Loire and the Seine gave the signal which
caused the regeneration of the North. The inhabitants of Mans formed a
community or association, and took an oath that they would obtain and
maintain certain rights. They rebelled about 1070, and forced the count
and his noble vassals to grant them the freedom which they had sworn to
obtain, though William of Normandy very soon restored the rebel city to
order, and dissolved the presumptuous community. However, the example soon
bore fruit. Cambrai rose in its turn and proclaimed the "Commune," and
although its bishop, aided by treason and by the Count of Hainault,
reduced it to obedience, it only seemed to succumb for a time, to renew
the struggle with greater success at a subsequent period.
|